Freedom
by ChibiFreak52
Summary: The Sharingan has always bore down on him, tortured him. And it's finally driven him to the edge. All he ever wanted was to be free. Deidara. One-shot.


Freedom

_A small sparrow hopped along on the twig of an old tree. It pecked at a dried leaf that was barely hanging on to the brittle piece of wood. It prodded until the twig snapped. The sparrow caught it in its mouth and flew off into the nearby woods. It added the twig to its growing pile on a thick tree branch and admired its new nest. An explosion. And the sparrow flew away. A gust of wind. And the twigs all fell. A cloud of dust. And Deidara found himself slamming into a rock face._

_A strong arm pinned him there, red eyes glaring and a cold voice saying, **"You are weak."**_

Deidara woke from his dream with a start. He looked around him to find a smoldering fire and a sleeping Tobi nearby. He stared at the man—wondering how Tobi found sleeping on a bulging tree root comfortable—before standing up and stretching. It was dark and cold. Deidara stoked the fire, cursing himself for not listening to Tobi's suggestion that they stay in the small inn they had passed the day before.

Deidara glared at the sleeping man, anger swelling in his gut, and he contemplated shaking the Akatsuki member awake so he could suffer in the cold too. But Deidara didn't want to hear Tobi talking, didn't want to hear him mention the inn. He didn't want to hear him mention his last fight with Itachi…

Deidara blamed the cold for his sour mood.

_"Obviously this wasn't worth my time at all."_

The words rang in Deidara's ears. He clenched his fists and stared at the fire.

_"Give up already."  
_

Deidara shut his eyes.

"_I have no intention of killing you but if I have to, I will."_

"Then kill me already! If you really think you're strong enough, strong enough to defeat my art!"

_"Are you saying you __want__to die?"_

Deidara grit his teeth.

"Pathetic." Itachi turned around. "It's time to go, Kisame."

_And Deidara lost it._

A large explosion shook Tobi from his root. He fell to the ground with a hard thud. He stood up and frantically looked around, trying to find an enemy. All he saw was Deidara standing and looking up at the night sky. A large cloud dissipated just above the trees, remnants of a detonated clay bird falling slowly.

The bomb was poorly made, Tobi noted. No bomb Deidara normally made came raining down as clay debris. It was this observation that kept Tobi's mouth shut as he walked up to his partner.

"It's time to go, Tobi," Deidara said. "People are bound to have noticed the explosion. We should go before they catch up to us, hmm."

Tobi nodded and followed Deidara off into the woods. They didn't talk until morning came.

Tobi didn't bother to say anything when a thin branch snapped back in Deidara's face—his snarky remarks had gone largely unanswered and soon lost their appeal. The blonde hissed in frustration. The blonde then proceeded to make a clay centipede. It wrapped around the offending branch and ignited it in a display of fire, smoke, and clay.

Tobi wondered how much clay Deidara had used since the first branch. He looked back at the clay-ridden path of burnt and splintered wood following them.

It must have been a lot of clay.

_Deidara was suffocating. Dense fog swirled around him, constricting him like a large snake. A clay snake. The snake morphed into a centipede, squeezing his body relentlessly._

_He was in a dojo. Before him stood three men garbed in black cloaks. He saw red clouds on them. _

_His world turned red. A white moon shone in the sky. Cold, unimpressed eyes stared at him. They engulfed him. Everything was black. Everything was heavy. Everything was cold. _

_His body became too heavy, his legs too weak. He collapsed. He couldn't move. He could only see red eyes staring back at him. _

White clay painted the landscape. It almost looked like snow. And Deidara was standing in the middle of it—one solitary man in a black cloak and red clouds. His visible eye was wide, panicked. He looked at the expanse of white surrounding him.

Tobi had gotten out of the way just in time. Deidara had sent a barrage of birds into the air, which had all exploded like fireworks, the scraps floating down to the forest floor. The air smelled burnt. Residual smoke hung in it.

Deidara turned and saw Tobi. Then he ran. Tobi followed without saying a word.

Deidara swore.

He looked down at the deformed sparrow in his hand before tossing it behind him. It exploded like a small fire cracker, joining the remains of the other failed creations.

He walked over to the pile and stared at it in disgust. It seemed to be mocking him, sitting there so innocently, so lifelessly. He resisted the urge to stomp on it.

That was when Tobi decided to intervene.

"Oi, Senpai~!" Tobi called out to the blonde.

Deidara started and whirled around to face the direction the sound came from. He relaxed when he noticed it was just Tobi. He ignored the nagging part of his brain that told him he should have been aware of his partner's presence.

He blamed it on Tobi's unusual silence.

He relaxed and tried to sound irritated.

"What is it, Tobi? Hmm."

"I think we should go find something to eat! I'm hungry!" Tobi clutched his stomach in a dramatic fashion.

It was then that Deidara realized he was hungry too. His stomach growled to help prove that point. He resisted the blush that was trying to work its way onto his cheeks before finally starting off in an aimless direction.

"Then let's go look for something, hmm," Deidara started. "Maybe we'll find a village along the way."

"Yes, Deidara-senpai~!" Tobi followed after with enthusiasm. Some part of him noted that Deidara could very easily have used a clay bird to find food. Then he looked at the pile of clay being left behind. Perhaps it was better to walk.

Tobi stared at the remains of the rock face Deidara had just blown up. He had done a nice job carving a large crater into the wall. The crater couldn't really be seen, though. It was veiled by the cascading waterfall that resulted from the initial explosion.

_Senpai would make a good landscaper,_ Tobi mused.

"Oi, Senpai~ Did you ever make one of our hideouts?"

Deidara scowled.

"Life is only beautiful because it's fleeting, hmm. I would never make something that lasts forever."

"Ah, that's true, isn't it~? Your explosions are always suupperrr amazing, Senpai~"

Deidara kept moving.

Had he not been looking, Tobi never would've seen the smug look that crossed Deidara's face. It was gone in an instant. But it was still there.

"You piece of shit…" Tobi ran for dear life. "I'LL BLAST YOU TO HELL!"

The resounding explosion was enough. Deidara knew what Tobi had done. And Tobi knew it had worked.

The pair had set off in search of food, Tobi resuming his normal habit of poking and prodding Deidara's buttons, the blonde's temper slowly rising.

When the pair found a small dango shop in the middle of the woods, Deidara was all but back to normal—perpetually irritated with Tobi. It was when Tobi had compared his art to a cheap clay pig that Deidara finally snapped.

He blasted Tobi sky high.

Deidara would never admit that he was grateful. He would shout to the world that Sasori's artistic views were superior to his before he would ever admit that he was grateful to Tobi—even to himself.

When the Sanbi had been successfully captured and sealed, Tobi was finally convinced that Deidara was back to normal. Whatever had bothered him had been forgotten. Or so he thought.

It wasn't until Deidara spotted Sasuke and flew down to challenge him that Tobi knew exactly what had disturbed him. The dreams. They often occurred after Deidara lost a battle with Itachi. But they had never inhibited his bomb making before.

That was how Tobi knew Deidara would not survive his encounter with Sasuke.

Tobi understood Deidara's silent apology; though Deidara made no gesture, no eye contact to indicate anything. He could feel it. Deidara was sorry.

And Tobi understood. So when Deidara shoved the last of his clay into his chest, Tobi ran.

"Because my art—"

Tobi listened as Deidara spoke his final words. He reflected that there was a new sense of adolescent joy in them. While Deidara always looked happy when making and detonating his bombs, Tobi knew something was different.

Deidara repressed a laugh. He was finally going to beat the Sharingan.

"—IS A BLAST!"

It was Deidara's finest explosion.

A small sparrow perched on a branch, a twig in its mouth and a nest at its feet. It set the twig down and admired its work for a moment. It nestled down in its fresh bed of twigs. Nearby, an explosion lit the horizon. Blinding light consumed the landscape. The tress fell with the light. The branches fell with the trees. The twigs fell with the branches. But the sparrow did not fall with the twigs. It flew away, towards the sky, towards the light, towards the new horizon. Because it was free and could do whatever it wanted.


End file.
